Home      Login

Abstract: 

Recent legislative changes in New York State have provided an unprecedented opportunity in the field of DUI/DWI related research to study the effects of specific penalties for impaired driving. New, stiffer repeat offender penalties (including jail, community service, and the use of ignition interlock) and the lowering of the BAC per se limit to 0.08%, provide an opportunity to examine implementation issues and effectiveness with respect to the dynamics involved in New York’s program to combat drinking and driving. The goal of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the new repeat offender law, which was implemented on September 30, 2003. The research design uses the tools and techniques of system dynamics modeling to identify, separate, and explain the various effects of multiple legislative changes and alternative sentencing policies. This article looks at this design and its development.

Keywords: BAC; ignition interlock, New York’s Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee;

Affiliations:  1: New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee; 2: Traffic Safety Management and Research (ITSMR); 3: Traffic Safety Management and Research (ITSMR).